Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service

The Bureau of Clinician and Recruitment Service (BCRS) is a part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. BCRS coordinates the recruitment and retention of health professionals in underserved communities and supports efforts to build more integrated and sustainable health care systems.

• In exchange for financial assistance, more than 28,000 clinicians have served in the National Health Service Corps since 1972. Today, over 3,800 NHSC physicians, dentists, nurses and mental health caseworkers treat 4 million patients in underserved communities nationwide — from frontier clinics in the west to distressed inner city neighborhoods.

• More than 78 percent of National Health Service Corps clinicians continue to work in underserved communities beyond their service commitment to the Corps.

• 52 percent of NHSC alumni remain in service to underserved communities between 1 and 15 years after fulfilling the service commitment.

The NHSC was created almost 40 years ago to address a crisis in the health care system. A wave of retirements among primary care physicians and increasing specialization by medical students had left swaths of America without physicians. Four decades later, these trends continue. Nationwide, underserved areas face a shortage of 16,000 primary care physicians, dentists and psychiatrists. To blunt the impact of scarce health care services, HRSA promotes the training and retention of a workforce that is diverse, well-trained, and widely dispersed throughout the nation.

HRSA provides scholarships and loan repayment awards to students and clinicians who agree to practice in communities facing health professional shortages. Through the NHSC, clinicians serve in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and every U.S. territory. Sixty percent of these physicians, dentists and nurses are in rural and frontier America, and 40 percent serve in inner cities.

The 4 million patients treated annually by Corps clinicians represent 11 percent of the estimated 36 million Americans living in areas that have little or no access to health care.

Over the past 3 years, the 1-year retention in service to the underserved has ranged from 75-80 percent. The 5-year retention rate is 68 percent and the 15-year retention rate is 52 percent.

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